Nasser Regarded As Dictating Settlement

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28264, 30 April 1957, Page 16

Nasser Regarded As Dictating Settlement

[.Specially written for the N.Z.P.A. by FRANK OLIVERI

WASHINGTON, April 28. The United States saved Colonel Nasser from military disaster last year and now sees him dictating his Suez Canal settlement at the United Nations. Officially the reaction to Colonel Nasser’s Suez plan is that America is making the best of a bad bargain, but thoughtful and objective observers are both privately and publicly crediting the Egyptian dictator with a dazzling victory. Here, they say, is a man, saved by America from utter disaster, now laying down the law unilaterally to all the members of an international convention concerning an international waterway. Moreover, it is said, he has managed to get the SecretaryGeneral of the United Nations to register his unilateral declaration as if it were a bilateral or multilateral treaty. In fact, under the terms of his own declaration, he can do as he pleases. Colonel Nasser’s victory over the canal and the events in Jordan have started at Washington what looks like a general appraisal of what the Eisenhower doctrine means and what it is likely to accomplish. It is widely recognised that Colonel Nasser has thumbed his nose at the Canal Users’ Assoelation, which was Mr Dulles’s brain child, and his generous offer to arbitrate certain matters exeludes both America and Israel. Neither country was a signatory to the 1888 convention. This, some commentators say, does not add up to any bountiful result for American diplomacy, particularly when it is recognised

that America has done more than anyone else to save Colonel Nasser’s political life. Perhaps, some are saying, Israel may have better luck. It seems to take small, very determined adversaries to make an impression on Colonel Nasser, as witness King Hussein. Israel has been awaiting the outcome of the Cairo talks before implementing her intention of sending a ship into the canal. Reports in Washington are that she is expected to do so very shortly. In business dealings with Colonel Nasser the King of Jordan is being given considerable credit by commentators here, and where a few days ago American experts were giving him only a 50-50 chance of survival, opinion is swinging round to a point where it is believed that he is likely to be the first person to inflict a real defeat on Colonel Nasser. It has been known at Washington for a long time that the money behind Colonel Nasser’s machinations, and particularly his propaganda, has come from Saudi Arabia. King Saud has been painted as a man who rather feared what Cairo radio propaganda could do to his kingdom if he did not comply with Colonel Nasser’s requests for funds, because Colonel Nasser’s propaganda has until now been very effective in various parts of the Middle East. Anything that increases the independence of the Arab States and decreases dependence on Colonel Nasser will, it is indicated in Washington, be welcome to the United States.